Environmental Assessment of Industrial Bamboo Products
Life Cycle Assessment and Carbon Sequestration
P. van der Lugt (MOSO Reseach & Development Center, TU Delft - Design for Sustainability)
Joost G. Vogtlander (TU Delft - Design for Sustainability)
JH van der Vegte (MOSO Reseach & Development Center)
JC Brezet (TU Delft - Design for Sustainability)
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Abstract
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is the commonly accepted methodology to systematically assess the environmental impact of a material over the full life cycle, from the extraction of resources until the end phase of demolition or recycling (from cradle till grave).
The first objective of this study is to gain a better understanding of the environmental impact of industrial bamboo products and its production process in terms of their CO2 equivalent (carbon footprint), toxic emissions, and materials depletion (LCA). The LCA in this paper is based on latest (2015) production and bamboo land-use change figures.
The second objective of this paper is to clarify how carbon sequestration on a global scale can be defined and calculated for industrial bamboo products, and how they can be incorporated in the standard LCA calculations.
The study concludes that industrial bamboo products, if based on best-practice technology (production chain of MOSO International BV), even when used in Europe, are CO2 negative over their full life cycle.